Our Next Flight

Many of you know that back on January 20th we were informed by Vox Media/SB Nation that our site will no longer be monetize and supported.

The news from Vox/SBNation came out of left field for us while we were working our day jobs. At that moment we had a thousand questions and zero answers, but we had to begin to plan the next stage. Over the past month we have been diligently working behind the scenes to not only continue but also improve and expand our coverage for 2023 and beyond.

First we want to say thank you to all of our readers and everyone who has followed us over the past 6 ¹⁄₂ years. We would also want to thank all of our current and former staff without whom, Loonum really would not have been a possibility. Without everyone who’s written for us has helped lay the groundwork for the next stage in our coverage of soccer throughout the Northland.

Over the past six years I have had the pleasure and privilege to cover soccer at all levels for this site. I have surprisingly been at Loonum nearly since the beginning with my first byline coming in January of 2017. Joining the site I was a young woman in her early 20’s with little writing experience outside of covering indoor football as well as no formal education or training. My indoor football writing is what I would now consider half hazard but it helped get my foot in the door.

I started covering the NPSL with Eli Hoff, who’s a special piece for us that you can read here, in 2017 when the North Conference was founded. 2018 saw Eli take over as Managing Editor and I moved into a role of Local Soccer Editor covering the NPSL North and the WPSL North, this is where I would get my first consistent bylines covering local clubs around the Upper Midwest. Partway through 2019 I would take over the Managing Editor role from Eli as he attended university. I had moved to Illinois the previous winter, but I made bi-monthly trips from the Quad Cities to St. Paul to cover the Loons.

Then the pandemic happened.

My at the time day job put me in a high risk environment, something I knew could bring risk to others, so I chose to cover the team remotely. That has remained the case to this day and I have not covered an MLS match in person since the fall of 2019. Covering Minnesota United and really soccer in general, has allowed me to meet some wonderful friends and colleagues along with having some experiences I will never forget. From covering Duluth FC and Dakota Fusion on a cold spring day at UMD to the first season at Allianz Field to the US Open Cup Final in Atlanta, this has been a dream come true.

After 3 ¹⁄₂ years leading the site, this is my (and I cannot believe this) 408th and final piece on E Pluribus Loonum as we pack away the brand and bring out a refreshed, reinvigorated, renewed brand and site to you. I cannot thank you all enough for making this possible and I hope you’ll all join us on the next step of our journey.

— Ashle Paige

All that being said we will be moving forward, no longer as E Pluribus Loonum or on the Chorus/Vox/SBN platform. Our MNUFC and MNUFC2 coverage (as well as more cool stuff) will continue as Northland Soccer Journal! You can visit our site at NorthlandSoccer.com, our Twitter @NorthlandSoccer, and support us on our brand new Northland Soccer Patreon page! We thank you for all the support over the years and cannot wait to have come on this new journey with us.

Thank you,

E Pluribus Loonum team